Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described herein are not prior art to the claims in the present application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Existing infrastructures for providing Wi-Fi to Internet access to mobile devices on moving vehicles such as long distance trains (LDTs) are typically realized by relaying wireless local area network (WLAN) traffics via cellular networks, satellite, trackside WiMAX or Leaky Coaxial Cable (LCX) to the backbone network. However, there are still some barriers that hinder the use of these technologies. For example, satellite communications are not ideal for high-speed access to trains since satellite links have limited bandwidth and long round trip times (RTT). WiMAX access creates enormous financial burden for large scale installation of trackside WiMAX access points (APs) and equipment maintenance thereafter, as is the case with LCX.
Cellular-based solutions take advantage of existing cellular architecture to reduce deployment and maintenance costs. However, handoffs between base stations or other APs and drastic fading phenomena can cause severe deterioration in signal strength of a client device to an unacceptable level, resulting in degraded network performance.